Wipro's pizza box to make high-speed broadband cheaper

BANGALORE: Wipro Technologies’ research team is developing technology to help provide cheaper, high-speed broadband internet access. For this, the company has tied up with manufacturers to make the product overseas for sale in India and the global market. The equipment, to be located on customer premises, will allow broadband speeds of between 100 megabits per second (Mbps) and one gigabit per second (Gbps), with commercial launch expected next year, general manager (telecom) Manoj Dighe said.

The so-called pizza boxes that are under development work on digital subscriber line (DSL ) technology, can support an average of 24 customers with a speed of 100 Mbps to allow applications such as IPTV, and digital television services using internet technology. The ‘ONT,’ or optical network terminal boxes, support one user, with speeds of 100 Mbps to 1Gbps, he said.

The products will be manufactured by Wipro’s partners mainly in Europe and Taiwan with an investment of $70-80 million, Mr Dighe said, but declined to name them citing non-disclosure pacts. “We will be providing the software that will be the brain of the boxes. The products will help our tier-1 and tier-2 customers complement their portfolio. The production is not taking place in India because the margins here are low and manufacturing technology is lacking.” Wipro is aiming for sales of 200,000-300,000 ‘pizza boxes’ — to be distributed by tier-1 equipment vendors — in five years and up a million ONT boxes in 3-5 years.

“They will be cheaper, have right configuration for telecom service providers and help to bring down broadband rates,” Mr Dighe said.

He did not specify the cost of the equipment or by how much it would help bring down rates.

The research team is also looking to develop products in wireless space, including Femto cells, or smaller cellular base stations, and unified communications.

"The infrastructure is already there due to presence of major unified communication companies, but what is required is development of applications on these platforms."

Source : EconomicTimes